The Ottawa Senators are coming off a phenomenal week at home, as they went 3-0-0 and have vaulted themselves near the top of the league by 5v5 shot and scoring chance metrics. That’s good! Their home stand continues for two more games, and they hope to stretch their winning streak to four games tonight as they host the Dallas Stars.

While the Senators dominated on Saturday against a much inferior Coyotes team, tonight’s matchup shouldn’t be nearly as easy. The Stars haven’t lost in regulation yet and have a 4-0-1 record; although they’re probably playing over their heads at this point. Still, Ottawa will have to keep up the pace that they have played with during all three games at home.

Here are the projected lines for tonight, with only one notable change:

Sens morning skate lines for Monday.

Tkachuk Stützle Batherson
DeBrincat Brassard Giroux
Motte Pinto Joseph
Kelly Kastelic Watson
xxxx Gambrell xxxx

Chabot Zub
Sanderson Hamonic
Brannstrom Holden
xxxx Zaitsev

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) October 24, 2022

Game Notes:

• As of now, Josh Norris’ long-term status is still up in the air. However, we know he’ll be out for at least a few weeks:/

DJ - we are waiting for the MRI for Norris. He'll be out a couple of weeks at least.

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) October 24, 2022

Given what we know about this injury, I’d be prepared for him to miss even more time.

• It’s interesting that Derick Brassard will step onto the second line right away. I get that he played well with Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux, although I feel like the better player, Shane Pinto, should be playing higher up in the lineup. That could definitely change quickly.
• Without any back-to-back games until the first week of December, it’ll be interesting to see how well Anton Forsberg can hold up.  The longtime journeyman has never carried this heavy of a workload.  He looked fantastic on Saturday, though, and can hopefully keep rolling./

UPDATE: Forsberg may not be good to go tonight, which means we could see 31-year-old Magnus Hellberg in his third career NHL start

Mandolese has been recalled from Belleville which means we could be seeing the debut of Magnus Hellberg https://t.co/QVsnIu7izV

— TSN 1200 (@TSN1200) October 24, 2022

• Jake Sanderson continues to perform admirably. I keep waiting for him to look like a rookie, and perhaps that’ll come at some point soon, but I hope it doesn’t. The Stars will provide a much stiffer test than the Coyotes.
• As you’ll see below in the team stats, the Stars’ 5v5 shot and chance metrics aren’t nearly as good as their record indicates; the key to their success so far has been on special teams. It seems like they’re due for some regression soon.
• Dallas is expected to start backup Scott Wedgewood; not having to face Jake Oettinger is a big break for the Senators .
• Joe Pavelski is someone to look out for tonight, which is crazy to say considering he’s 38 years old. But the man is still tied for the team lead in scoring with 7 points in 5 games. Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Mason Marchment, and Tyler Seguin also lead the attack for the Stars.
• The game starts at 7:00 EST tonight and it can be seen on TSN5 and RDS or you can listen on TSN1200./

Player Stats

Team Stats